Over the past couple of months, I have noticed that the majority of your reader comments come after I uncover some news about drugs in sports. Or Canadians. Or Canadians who dope. Anyhow, there have been a few updates over the past couple of months that I have saved up, so without further ado, here goes…
Some late breaking news this Thursday…the new Astana UCI cycling team might not be allowed in this year's Tour de France. This despite this year's Astana is basically comprised of last year's Discovery Team. Yep, that same Discovery Team with Alberto Contador (last year's winner) and Levi Leipheimer. Plus they have Lance's coach for all those USPS years (Johan Bruyneel) running the team after last year's doping fiasco. Plus, this year's team is super committed to combatting doping. From the article "the team is spending 300,000 euros on a strict anti-doping testing program that includes independent, unannounced out-of-competition tests on the team's riders. The team also is budgeting 120,000 euros to meet the standards of the new so-called "biological passport" being introduced by the UCI, and a further 40,000 euros on a new system to track riders' whereabouts at all times." Wow, teams are spending more money on anti-doping than they spent on drugs in the late 90's. Plus, I love the "tracking riders' whereabouts" thing. Maybe we can call that the Rasmussen rule. What do they do? Make the riders wear Garmins all day long so they can download their GPS data? What about paying me half that amount to go thru their cel phone bills?
http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/13954.0.html
Okay, second weird story about doping. It appears that the whole "did he or didn’t he dope" saga about Iban Mayo has reached the ridiculous level. Okay, quick timeline…July 30th Mayo tested positive for EPO use during the tour. October 22nd, the Spanish Federation cleared him, saying that there was a error with the A sample and the B sample was negative. The next day, though, the UCI said the B sample was "not non-negative". Huh? The UCI then said they would retest the B sample. December 19th the B sample re-test came back positive and asked the Spanish Cycling Federation to re-open an investigation against Mayo and (probably) re-implement the standard 2 year suspension. However, January 7th, the Spanish Federation decided against pursuing the case, saying that would break the "double jeopardy rule" and force Mayo to be tried twice for the same offense which he had already been cleared of. This is not over yet...
http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/13877.0.html Oh yeah, Mayo had also had doping allegations (high testosterone) against him during the Giro d'Italia this year…just so you know…I've always liked him since he can climb with the studs, unfortunately, he seems to have more bad days than the rest of the GC contenders.
Here's not a doping story, but a pretty cool cheating story. This week, a cyclist (Elia Rigotti - Team Milram) was disqualified from the Tour Down Under for deliberating headbutting another cyclist (Rabobank's Mathew Hayman) during the sprint finish . Rigotti actually shattered the Hayman's collarbone in two places. Awesome video footage here. http://youtube.com/watch?v=6kmWjNQ0cp4 Story is here: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/jan08/jan25news2
Cheating cyclists arent the only ones getting in trouble. Two recent running stories illustrate that. First up, a story from last years Berlin Marathon, where the third place Mexican Presidential candidate from this years election got disqualified after running a 240 marathon (55 years old). It seems he got tired, skipped about 9 miles, then ran hard the last 10 km or so, then claimed he was "tired and exhausted and that is why he skipped part of the course". However, he did cross the finish line and did not admit to skipping the course. Whoops…this is actually a great article to read. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20071012-2309-bn12madrazo.html
Second running story (thanks to Brent Morrow for this one) also from the Berlin Marathon (what is it with this race?). In this story, a female racer from Liechtenstein set a country record by running 242 and qualifying for next years Olympics. However, upon further review, she actually tricked a German triathlete into carrying her chip for her as part of a "scientific study". Eventually the truth came out, and this runner has admitted to doing this in two other marathons in 2006. Wow...
http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/Athletes/Ghost_runner_go_86.html
We've talked cycling and talked running. Well since most of us consider ourselves triathletes (or triathletes to-be for Mr Richards, Ms Pullan, and Mr Curran) there is one more quick story. Hooper pointed out this interview on Slowtwitch with Lisa Bentley - where she made the following quote "Subaru IMC – is home for me – beautiful – but I wish there was drug testing there" . Hmmm, who is she referring to? Any ideas? http://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Lisa_Bentley_-_big_heart_big_smile_173.html
This week's Youtube Video will of course follow today's theme…with a funny spin… http://youtube.com/watch?v=k2wwaraxlqg
I'll finish with a sad update. The civil unrest in Kenya has claimed another top-notch marathoner this week. The two-time winner of the Minneapolis St-Paul Marathon, Wesly Ngetich, was killed this week in his hometown. Although this is not supposed to be linked to the political strife discussed last week, it is linked to tribe vs trible violence. Sad. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gsIhChF4OOktILuiwP4vdVveJVsgD8UB3C381
I vote for the implementation of an "adopt-a-Kenyan" program. Brent Richards can take one to be official dogwalker, Todd will take one for a live-in nanny, and Curran will take one to drive the ambulance (how many more weeks can we joke about this - 6 months takes us to the end of February…?). And I guess I need a few to teach me how to properly pace a marathon...
Coming next week…we'll talk Super Bowl (of course) and maybe ring in February with some information about the Pro Cycling Calendar, the sport we love for 3 weeks every June and ignore for the next 49 weeks (myself included). Plus an update on triathlons and triathletes... Til then, bike-y on...
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